Earlier on Tuesday, Reuters reported about an unconfirmed number of alleged Russian fighters having been killed by the US led coalition forces during a clash with pro-Assad forces in Syria. The incident happened earlier this month, in the Deir ez-Zor province. Russia’s defense ministry’s statement at the time of the incident tried to downplay the situation, claiming that no Russian servicemen were in the area at the time of the fighting, as pro-Syrian government fighters were carrying out a recon mission when they were engaged by US led coalition forces. However, on Monday, the story changed, as it emerged that at least 2 Russian operatives that were fighting with pro Asssad forces were killed in the respective skirmish in Deir ez-Zor. Other (unverified/unverifiable) sources put the number of Russian casualties in the dozens, and if the deaths are to be confirmed officially, it would make for a huge political scandal for Vladimir Putin, as the Russian military/government is keeping these deaths under wraps, while claiming Russia doesn’t have boots on the ground/operatives involved in the Syrian civil war. One of Putin’s future contenders in the next presidential election is already pressing him to disclose to the general public the real number of Russian servicemen killed in action in Syria, and what were the circumstances of their deaths.

Things got very interesting on Wednesday morning, with Bloomberg reporting that the body-count of Russian operatives killed in Syria by US forces or by the US led coalition is actually in the hundreds. As per the Bloomberg story, scores of Russian mercenaries (Russian contract soldiers) were killed by US/US led forces last week in Syria, in what has been described as the bloodiest clash between US and Russian “citizens” (a weird choice of words) since the Cold War. The veracity of the Bloomberg article...